How to sell sheet music online
How to Sell Sheet Music and Make Music Income | A New Music Income Stream for YOU?
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it's literally the oldest music business
and the first music publishing medium
ever and it's still a thing yes even
after hundreds of years sheet music has
survived the phonograph it survived the
radio it survived singles and eight
track tapes and cassette tapes and cds
and downloads and now sheet music has
even survived and is thriving alongside
streaming as a viable way to make music
income now this is just starting for me
i've only had a little bit of sheet
music sales so far in the past couple of
years as i've put things out there but i
am working on more and more arrangements
i'll be talking about that in this video
and about how i've been receiving some
income so far from those arrangements
and where i am putting them online i've
only had a few sales so far but you know
me i find anything that makes music
income and i'm gonna shake that tree for
all it's worth and i will find a way to
10x that sucker and that is what we are
going to talk about today on this quick
take video
on sheet music sales
[Music]
hey if you are just finding this channel
and wondering about all the ways that
you could make music income i have a
free gift for you called 50 ways to make
music income you can get it absolutely
free right now we're kind of celebrating
one year since the release of my first
video six ways to make music income but
this free ebook is
50 ways to make music income you can
find it right here at make music income
dot com slash 50 ways totally free and
it may just give you some ideas on how
you can make more music income one of
the things i talk about in that ebook is
selling sheet music it's one of the very
first things i talked about in my first
video six ways to make music income was
music publishing now this is less music
publishing in like getting signed to a
music publisher getting your music
published and more about self-publishing
your music we are all pretty much
self-publishing when we put our stuff
out on spotify self-releasing our music
but this is the actual notes that people
can buy so that they can play the songs
that you are making and can sing them
and can perform them and have the actual
chords and notes and lyrics and
everything in front of them the people
buying your sheet music are players they
are not composers they are not
songwriters they are people wanting to
play the music so especially if you do
instrumental music
solo music that you can easily
transcribe for me i play the keyboards
and i'll play solo piano music or i will
do orchestral things that are written
out and are scored out so those kind of
things are very useful and people are
looking for new music like this all the
time one site i use is called
sheetmusicplus.com
and i've been on there for a few years
and i've had some piano music and every
once in a while one of my piano
arrangements would sell on there and
they have now kind of been taken over by
hal leonard which is a
long time
name in the music publishing business
that is taking over these sites and now
they are the ones that you are
registering with as a composer and
putting your music in and then it's
sending it out to these sites that make
it available for people to buy and
download your sheet music again usually
for me my sheet music is for piano
players it's a piano piece a solo piano
version of either a hem or maybe a
patriotic song or solo music that i've
written it also could be some kind of
ensemble classical piece i did a lot of
that kind of work in my master's degree
over the past four or five years and so
i have some very unique kinds of
classical or contemporary pieces that
feature unique things like four cellos
and a drum beat so i can sell the cello
music along with a track or i can sell
some other ensemble thing that i did
for a unique ensemble of violin and
cello and flute and piano i actually
sold a piece like that for forty dollars
recently to an ensemble who was wanting
to find music for their specific kind of
ensemble so that sold for 40 i got half
of that 20 bucks right now i'm working
to get all of my sheet music especially
stuff that i've done that is
arrangements of public domain songs
hymns
classical things perhaps patriotic
things and get these things up there for
piano players and certain ensembles
sometimes i have piano and an instrument
like flute or something as a solo
instrument and so i make these and i
put them up on these sites so my plan
now is to just keep getting out as much
as i can not much different than sync
licensing or stock music or beats or
whatever you are trying to sell out
online the goal is quantity now i also
believe in quality so i am really
picking the things i think people are
going to resonate with and be looking
for
i will also likely make a page on my
publishing website for the sheet music
that i have available detailing the
instruments and kind of try to see if i
can make that searchable on a search
engines so people can find arrangements
for unique things like flute cello
violin marimba and piano you know so but
you never know when people are looking
for these kind of things from colleges
from schools certain kinds of unique
player groups that exist out there and
that's how i ended up selling that 40
score recently to a group that was
looking for
some kind of music for their particular
group so you may be wondering how do you
even make sheet music of your songs now
if you are a music geek you can use
something like sibelius which is by avid
who also makes pro tools and you can get
that on a monthly subscription so you
don't have to pay for the program and if
this turns out to be something you don't
want to do you can just stop paying
monthly there's even a free scoring
program called musescore that i've used
before absolutely free and you can get
that download it and start making sheet
music right away warning
this is very time consuming work it
really is to get your stuff in there
sure you can take something that you've
created on your daw and send it out into
midi format and import that midi but
then you're going to go in and really
massage that in the scoring programs to
make them look like something or you can
do what i do and have someone transcribe
it for me it's also called engraving
work you can find people who do this
kind of thing on fiverr or on upwork i
actually have someone who does it for me
so i offer this service as well to
create a beautiful piece of sheet music
from your song depending on what you
want
usually people want the melody
the chords the lyrics if it's a lyrical
song
or if it's a piano song you send me the
midi and i just like with my own stuff i
will transcribe it or have it
transcribed piano wise we want to make
it a little simpler probably than it
might be make sure it's easy for
intermediate and even beginner players
to play what they want to download off
these sheet music sites pretty important
now some dolls are capable of making
scores logic
kind of does this but it's very tedious
and it's not really made for this but it
could be a free option along with
musescore if that's what you want to try
the bottom line just like making any
music that you're going to try to sell
or license you either have to do the
work
or you have to hire someone to do the
work or you have to collab with someone
to do the work one way or the other
that's the way you're going to get it
made you can take your midi and turn it
into sheet music can be done and so
you're just going to have to decide
which way you want to do that again
look for people
trained to do this that are doing it
cheaply but with quality maybe on fiverr
on upwork or you can also talk with me
i'll put in the description below how to
contact me if you're interested in me
making sheet music for you now unlike
stock music which is pretty saturated
with all sorts of music from mediocre to
amazing sheet music is not as easy for
amateurs to pull off so if you are a
music making person you know theory you
know how to transcribe these songs this
could be a way to make music income that
not everybody can do this is where you
can excel if you are more trained in
making music on paper than others or
you're willing to hire someone for cheap
to do this music work for you this
probably won't be for beginners who rely
on sample packs
pre-made loops or their own guitars they
may not easily get into sheet music
sales so if you are more savvy musically
this is where those music theory classes
pay off and all that time that you were
made to transcribe music
this is where that kind of work pays off
and can be an income stream for you it's
also a very focused audience of people
who are not looking for
cool trap beats they're not looking for
up-tempo corporate music or any of that
nonsense these are focused serious
musicians looking for quality music to
play for their enjoyment for church for
school functions for recitals or other
things they may even record it
and want to sell it and you can have a
section on your site for them to come
and license those recordings of your
sheet music you can also sell
accompaniments for soloists to play
along with that's what i'm going to be
doing as many of my songs are
songs that i want to put out the melody
and then i will also include the track
that i have made that they can play
along with and it's a great way to get
people to your website to go get the mp3
or the download or maybe they go buy it
at pawn five or they go buy it at audio
jungle or motion array or someplace like
that and they can get the instrumental
to play along with when they're using
the sheet music so this is a whole new
or not so new world really for us as
composers for us as producers and
musicians and people who are writing
things if you are writing melodies if
you are playing piano pieces or guitar
pieces this might be
a brand new
way for you to think about making music
income unlike music for gaming which we
talk about in this video with stephen
mullen
this is not exactly a whole new world in
fact it's a very very old world right
sheet music has been around for
centuries with like monks transcribing
music through the centuries until the
printing press was made and then they
could start to manufacture sheet music
for use and up until the 1800s the late
1800s at that that was the only way to
really experience music was to go get
cheap music buy the music bring it home
play it everybody gathered around the
piano and would sing and do this music
not until the phonograph became really
popular around the turn of the century
right around 1900 did sheet music begin
to fall off a little bit but it's never
completely fallen off it's still a
commodity today and i bet it's one that
you haven't thought about very much and
so that's why i'm so excited to think
about this do more and report on it here
on this channel we tend to think about
music as an oral thing a thing that we
hear with our ears but music put to
paper or pdf is different i've heard it
said recently that something in its
physical form grants it permanence okay
that came from bridgerton
but again this is an income stream i
have seen pick up lately with like a
hundred dollars in sales over the past
few months and it's something we need to
be thinking about especially if this
kind of medium works for your music so i
made 100 bucks time to 10x this puppy
who's with me i'll have more information
on this income stream as i produce more
sheet music and have more sales and as
usual i will report to you here on this
channel how that is going and what is
happening with that we're going to be
talking about more publishing things
over the course of the next few months
here on this channel but this is one
that i think everybody needs to start
thinking about because this is something
that obviously is not going away it's
been around for centuries it's not going
away people are still buying sheet music
i've heard stories of composers and
arrangers selling six figures with sheet
music hello this is something we need to
be thinking about i'd love to hear your
comments down below in the comments
section let me know what you think of
this and if you've had any luck selling
sheet music or if you are interested in
this and are thinking about moving in
this direction and remember our free
ebook 50 ways to make music income you
can find that in the description below
and all of our ebooks and courses that
we offer there thanks so much for
watching we'll see you next time go make
some sheet music
